Prom 16 (13.08.21) - Martyn Brabbins & the BBC Symphony Orchestra

[pastoralguy]

Love the work it or hate it last nights Pastoral was tremendous as a performance. It is just about my favourite symphony - I must have heard it literally hundreds of times and never tire of it.

[Serial_Apologist]

They usually get the edit up within a very few hours of the television broadcast. It should certainly be there by the morning after.

The Sounds player for this Prom can be found on the link below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000yngf

I was a little disappointed by the Payne piece - something felt inert about Payne's harmonic language in 1984: I think he was still writing using 12-tone technique which did not seem that natural to him - in a few years he would draw more heavily allusively on George Butterworth, and Sibelius, and his music was strengthened by how one feels he managed to shed his self-consciousness about "betraying" Late Romantic and specifically English early 20th century influences, as had David Bedford, Richard Rodney Bennett, Jonathan Harvey, Bernard Rands, and maybe one or two others of that same generation by 1980, some earlier than others. There was a school of landscape painters known if I remember correctly as the New Ruralists who emerged at around that time, with whom one felt these composers, who had been writing relatively abstract modernist music, had a lot in common.

[Nick Armstrong]

Love the work it or hate it last nights Pastoral was tremendous as a performance. It is just about my favourite symphony - I must have heard it literally hundreds of times and never tire of it.

Just listened to the performance for the second time here in rural SW France: agreed completely, Heldenleben

[oddoneout]

The Sounds player for this Prom can be found on the link below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000yngf

I was a little disappointed by the Payne piece - something felt inert about Payne's harmonic language in 1984: I think he was still writing using 12-tone technique which did not seem that natural to him - in a few years he would draw more heavily allusively on George Butterworth, and Sibelius, and his music was strengthened by how one feels he managed to shed his self-consciousness about "betraying" Late Romantic and specifically English early 20th century influences, as had David Bedford, Richard Rodney Bennett, Jonathan Harvey, Bernard Rands, and maybe one or two others of that same generation by 1980, some earlier than others. There was a school of landscape painters known if I remember correctly as the New Ruralists who emerged at around that time, with whom one felt these composers, who had been writing relatively abstract modernist music, had a lot in common.

That name brings back memories - student orchestra tackling Garden of Love and the 100 Kazoos piece (which was the reduced forces version...) I think the composer was there for one of the rehearsals, but it was a long time ago and attention was rather focused on interpreting the squiggles on the page.

[Serial_Apologist]

That name brings back memories - student orchestra tackling Garden of Love and the 100 Kazoos piece (which was the reduced forces version...) I think the composer was there for one of the rehearsals, but it was a long time ago and attention was rather focused on interpreting the squiggles on the page.

I saw that at the Victoria Rooms in Bristol, ca. 1971 0r 2. Kevin Ayers' group The Whole World Band culminated otherwise very interesting proceedings in rocked up bombast, which sounded indistinguishable from Pink Floyd to my ears. My girlfriend and I left in disgust.

[Barbirollians]

Finally caught up with this on BBC sounds . I agree with all the praise heaped on this lovely , affectionate and fresh account of the Pastoral and I enjoyed Dame Sarah Connolly’s deeply felt if rather darker than usual account of Nuits d’Ete. Also did not find much to enjoy in the rather repetitive Payne piece.